Vaccinations must resume urgently because they have dropped considerably with the Covid-19 epidemic and containment, warned the High Health Authority (HAS) on Tuesday.
This call concerns both infants and "adults who have chronic diseases, special frailties," explained infectious disease specialist Élisabeth Bouvet, president of the HAS Technical Commission on Vaccinations. "It's a double concern," she says. For children, "the catching up that takes place from May 11 [beginning of progressive deconfinement] is insufficient", according to her.
Risks of a measles epidemic
"The deficit remains significant for measles, with the risk of seeing resurgence of epidemics and losing the renewed vaccination that we had apparently managed to obtain" against this contagious disease, she fears. An estimated "44,000 infants aged 3-18 months" have not received vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, polio, whooping cough, meningitis caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b and l Hepatitis B, notes the HAS. These estimates appear in the reports published during the Covid-19 epidemic by Epi-flagship, a structure bringing together the Medicines Agency (ANSM) and Health Insurance.
According to observations by Epi-flagship, which published its third report on Friday, "there has been a collapse in consumption over the entire initial period of containment from -35% to -71% for vaccines". "We knew quickly enough, with the first Epi-flagship survey, that there was a reduction in vaccinations", in particular "penta and hexavalent vaccines which are only made in small children from 0 to 2 years old", according to Professor Bouvet. She mentions "proportional decreases from minus 20% to minus 30% of the doses of vaccine purchased, which corresponds to a decrease in vaccine coverage".
The HAS recommended, in early April, to maintain all compulsory vaccinations for infants, those recommended beyond 2 years may be deferred until the containment is lifted.
Delays in vaccination also in adults
"The other problem is adults who have chronic illnesses, special weaknesses," says Prof. Bouvet, about the vaccines against tetanus and pneumococcus. The times are shorter to get vaccinated against pneumococcus than for tetanus, she notes, advising people at risk to update this vaccination.
The vaccines not carried out over the entire 8 weeks of confinement, and therefore to be made up, concern 90,000 people of all ages for papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines, 123,000 for MMR (measles-mumps-rubella) and 450,000 for tetanus vaccines intended for the booster of children (except infants), adolescents and adults, according to the 3rd Epi-flagship report.
The HAS draws attention to vulnerable populations who are the subject of specific recommendations in the vaccination calendar (people with chronic diseases, immunocompromised, chemotherapy patients, the elderly, pregnant women, etc.).
In the event of symptoms of Covid-19, with a positive virological test (RT-PCR), catching up with the vaccine may begin as soon as recovery is over, after the symptoms have disappeared (at least 48 hours for fever and possible respiratory discomfort).
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